The following is a translation of the World Respecting Childbirth Week 2007 statement reflecting the situation of maternity services in France. We urge groups taking part in this event to send us announcements adapted to the contries in which they wish to organise meetings and public interventions. All languages are accepted on this site!

(See announcements in French, Spanish, Czech)

The theme of the next World Respecting Childbirth Week (7-13 May 2007) will be ‘RESPECTING CHILDBIRTH’. This title is inspired by the name of a quality label promoted in France by the CIANE collective in compliance with the Mother-Baby Friendly Childbirth Initiative (MBFI).

The objective of Respecting Childbirth is to acknowledge people and promote places that are respectful of mothers, fathers and their babies. The underlying ideas will be explored in different ways during the event. For the general public it will be an opportunity to reaffirm the need for quality when maternities are undergoing enormous pressure for profitability. This is unacceptable when it comes to childbirth. Modern management based on a pricing indexed on medical interventions does not take into account activities that support continuous care in childbirth, a central issue in the framework of public health and a priority for perinatal policies. Such activities cannot be quantified simply in terms of medical gestures and days spent in hospital. (1) Many local maternities have been under threat of closure because of lack in profitability. In France, there were around 670 maternity units for 774 000 births in early 2006, yielding an average of 1150 births per maternity unit. During the same period, in Germany, there were 1071 maternity units for 690 000 births yielding an average of 644 births per maternity unit (2). Among the side-effects of this disastrous managerial policy is the splitting up of care for pregnant women and their newborn babies — the exact opposite of continuity of care, a right they are entitled to.

Preparing for childbirth and the quality of birth attendance depend dramatically upon the number and qualifications of caregivers. Therefore, consumers of maternity services support the claims of French midwives for:
1) A significant increase in the numerus clausus (quota) at the entry of midwifery schools (which should also lead to a broader variety of maternity care as suggested by the National Health policy in the UK.)
2) A reappraisal of training in midwifery with a real academic cursus leading to a master degree (as demanded by French midwifery students).

The third part of our ‘RESPECTING CHILDBIRTH’ approach will be the respect of parents’ choice of the place of birth. Countries in the north of Europe that display the best perinatal statistics are the same ones supporting free-standing birthing centres and providing a legal framework for midwives to attend homebirths. At present, the French government takes a neutral position — when not hostile — in the face of the increasing popularity of homebirth.

The World Respecting Childbirth Week will be an occasion to reaffirm publicly that human reproduction is a social fact in the first place. The medical point of view should not be the sole reference when 80% of deliveries do not require medical intervention. (Iatrogenic effects of unnecessary medical interventions — see WHO recommendations — should be taken into account in risk evaluation.) WRCW 2007 will therefore be an opportunity to discuss ongoing projects of birthing centres and issues pertaining to homebirth, the safety of which have been confirmed in numerous studies. (See the AFAR compilation of articles on birthing centers and homebirth.)

Please do not hesitate to send proposals, news and links that we will put on this website!

(1) Evelyne Vander Heym, « Le nouvel Hôpital Pierre Rouquès – Les Bluets : d’une naissance à une mort annoncée », communiqué de presse du 13/06/2006
(2) Legrand, Muszynski & Ramos, Contre-rapport préconisant le maintien et la mise aux normes de nos petits hôpitaux et maternités de proximité, Bulletin d’information des Associations de défense des hôpitaux de proximité, in Les Dossiers de l’Obstétrique, 353, oct. 2006, p.25